The purpose of such an adapter is to provide an electrical contact between test contacts on the grid and test points that are on and/or off the grid. This is done by positioning the test pins in the adapter in particular inclined positions. Fitting the adapter with the test pins can be done either manually or mechanically, and either semi-automatically or fully automatically.
An adapter of the kind described above is the subject of an earlier proposal by the applicant. In this arrangement the test pins have cylindrical shafts, of which the ends remote from the heads are tapered conically to a point to form contact sections, the angle of the point being about 90.degree..
This known arrangement has proven to be very advantageous, but it still needs to be improved, for the following reasons. Because of the predetermined thickness of the test pin it is only possible to test test-pieces whose test points are relatively far apart. This limits the field of use of this adapter, particularly for so-called SMD (surface mounted device) test pieces.